Directed by: Ben Falcone
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, Tyler Labine
The Boss is better than recent Melissa McCarthy vehicles The Heat, Identity Thief, Tammy, and I could go on. I suppose the difference in The Boss is McCarthy's character isn't intolerably unlikable. Sure, she's aloof and rude, but not irretrievably so. After being rejected by foster family after foster family, Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) decides she doesn't need anyone and in a few years rises to the top of the corporate world. She's rich, alone, and soon thrown in jail for insider trading violations. We know Michelle will learn to love and trust others, but at least we don't completely reject the notion. With that being said, The Boss is not a successful comedy. It isn't very funny and seems to be marking time until Michelle's inevitable change of heart.
I am not a fan of McCarthy's rude persona she has taken on in previous films. It goes so far over the top there is no going back. So when her characters suddenly decide to play nice, why should we accept her? It is a disturbing trend in comedies lately (i.e. The Bronze, Bad Words) to make the main character so over-the-top unlikable and then expect us to understand they have their reasons for being that way. Why even bother? McCarthy is better at playing more sympathetic characters. When she curses out someone, it feels shoehorned in.
After Michelle is turned in by her business rival/former lover Renault (Dinklage-who seems to relish being at war with himself over Michelle), Michelle loses everything and winds up staying on the couch of her former assistant Claire (Bell). Michelle exasperates Claire, but forms a bond with Claire's daughter Rachel (Anderson) and attends her girl scout meetings. At the meetings, Michelle has a eureka moment. Why not sell the awesome brownies Claire bakes for a larger profit margin than the girl scouts sell their cookies? Mobilize the girls to be relentless sales machines and Michelle soon finds herself back in the big time, much to Renault's disappointment. Renault (formerly Ronald) is still in love with Michelle and can't stand that he is, so his villainy towards her is like a cold shower.
The Boss more or less moves along predictably with few surprises. There is a fight between rival girl scout factions shown in slow motion in all of its violent glory. I never caught on to how this is funny. Is the idea of girl scouts thrashing each other supposed to be a laugh riot? Fights in movies can be funny (as in Dumb and Dumber) when there is an angle presented towards them. In Jim Carrey's case in that movie, he was fantasizing about impressing his girlfriend and somehow assumes ripping a guy's heart out will please her. Just showing girls punch, kick, bite, and chop at each other looks and sounds like a real fight.
The Boss still goes for the lowest common denominator whenever possible, which is really just a movie hedging its bets. But occasionally, there are glimpses of real emotion here and motivations which make some of the characters more interesting than expected. To me, it is more nervy for a Melissa McCarthy comedy to not aim its gags to a built-in audience, but maybe take the laughs in another direction. There is nothing more than can be milked out of this McCarthy persona.
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